


You Didn't Have To Cut Me Off

by ihasstopwatch



Category: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Video Games), Middle-earth: Shadow of War (Video Games), TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: Heartbreak, Heavy Angst, M/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:34:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24039706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ihasstopwatch/pseuds/ihasstopwatch
Summary: Talion has changed so much that he isn't really even "someone Ratbag used to know" anymore.[Contains spoilers for Middle-earth: Shadow of War, specifically the Brûz quest line. Also, the rating is more just to be safe than for actual content. It's very vague in that regard.]
Relationships: Ratbag the Coward/Talion
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	You Didn't Have To Cut Me Off

**Author's Note:**

> This story is, yes, inspired by the lyrics to Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know". My apologies if stories inspired by songs aren't your thing.

Most days, the memories were enough to keep Ratbag going. 

_Talion sighing in frustration at how slow on the uptake Ratbag could be, then just smiling and shaking his head._

_The first time they had laid together in Talion's bedroll, with Ratbag's face pressed into the Ranger's chest to try and block out the storm he'd been so frightened of. Ratbag breathing in Talion's scent and realizing for the first time that it was the most incredible thing in the world, that he never wanted to live without it._

_Ratbag indignantly trying to convince Talion he was not, in fact, afraid of water, only to fucking **squeak** when Talion grabbed him and leaped into the lake, soaking them both to the skin. And of course the aftermath of that - Talion laughing and apologizing as he helped Ratbag out of his armor. All of it. Talion discovering the not-always-visible places Ratbag was pierced. The fumbling awkwardness of their first shared orgasm, naked and waist deep in that lake._

_A few weeks after the lake incident -_ though how it took either of them **that long** to say anything is beyond him - _they both end up confessing the depth of their feelings. Ratbag is so taken aback by it that he goes on the defensive, telling Talion exactly what he would do if this is the Ranger's idea of a sick joke. But it isn't and honestly, Ratbag is so happy that if he had died right then, or anytime in the next few days when he's still riding the high of 'He actually fucking loves me?!', he would have been perfectly happy with it._

_The bittersweet time they'd been together the night before their run-in with The Hammer. Every touch full of desperation, things neither of them wanted to say, things they **couldn't** say because it would mean admitting that they knew deep down this was likely the last time they'd ever see each other. Talion hadn't been blind. With Ratbag being the only Warchief left in that part of Gorgoroth, **of course** The Hammer would be giving him the full brunt of his anger at the destruction of the monument. Damn those Outcasts. Damn them and their foolish rebellion._

When the memories weren't enough, it would take more than a little rough love from Az-Harto to get Ratbag to even consider giving a damn about himself. Because what was the point in caring when he'd been reunited with the Man he loved only to realize that the man standing in his throme room, claiming his fortress as his own with that backstabbing Olog piece of shrak by his side... this wasn't _his_ Talion anymore.

Ratbag wasn't a _complete_ idiot. He knew it was normal for people to grow apart, never speak again, or for their relationship to go hostile. He'd seen it often enough with orcs who had gone from being as close to 'in love' as orcs usually got one day to trying desperately to kill each other in the fighting pits the next. It happened, you picked a side in their petty war, and you moved on.

What he hadn't expected was for Talion to treat him as though he were little more than a stranger. An annoyance that he put up with only for as long as Ratbag remained useful, the way things had been between them up until Talion had had to rescue him from being executed by Brogg The Twin. So he did his best to ingratiate himself with Talion, teaching him what little he could about this part of Uruk society he'd left out the first time around. And...

Nothing. It hadn't worked. If anything, their interactions were colder and more distant than ever, even after Ratbag had all but begged for Talion's help in rescuing Az-Harto from wherever Brûz was keeping him. Orcs and Ologs, he realized, were nothing more than pawns to Talion now. A means to an end Ratbag wasn't sure he wanted to know the details of.

And when he'd seen Brûz, sobbing and muttering to himself about "not wanting the fort" and that Talion "could have it back, just take it back" with tears and snot mingling on his face as he knelt there in the dirt... Ratbag knew it was over. Whatever scraps he may have thought he could recover of how things used to be were gone, vanished like smoke on the wind. Nothing was left of the Talion he'd fallen for that night so long ago it seemed like a distant memory, with the Ranger's arms wrapped tightly around him as he whispered soothing words into Ratbag's ear, and Ratbag reveling in the scent of leather, steel, and the almost spicy musk that was just undeniably _Talion._

He couldn't go back, but he wasn't sure he wanted to try going forward. After all, he'd earned the title of Coward for a reason. But he didn't have a choice now, so he ran and didn't look back at the complete and utter stranger he thought he'd known so well.

**Author's Note:**

> Firstly, a huge thank you to both draylon and Sinick. Without their fics for the pairing, I never would have considered Talion/Ratbag as a pairing at all. But the summaries drew me in and, well, the rest is history. 
> 
> It's also because of their fics that I decided to actually give Shadow of War a try; I had previously been a stubborn little cuss who, for some reason, assumed it was going to be a bad sequel. But my boy Ratbag is in it at least a little and I just had to know what the events referenced in "No War Should Be Fought Alone" were like for myself. 
> 
> Tl;dr of that is that I'm putting off the final Brûz mission because I know it's going to break my heart and it's already got some nasty cracks from really seeing how much Talion has changed from SoM. Hence me seeing the lyrics to "Somebody That I Used To Know" and getting bit by the inspiration bug for the first time in almost a decade.


End file.
